An additional distinguishing aspect of this program is our commitment to serving the medically underserved. Each year we sponsor an international two-week journey to Guatemala; locally our faculty and residents volunteer at inner-city free clinics. Furthermore, upon appropriate presentation of a plan, our residents are allowed to take a one-month international elective, which is partially subsidized by the Medical Staff.

The ultimate goal of our educational system is to produce socially conscious physicians who will be dedicated not only to their patients but also to the system that trained them and the community they serve.

The Residency Program in Internal Medicine is made up of 32 PGY I residents (of which 12-14 are in the Preliminary track) and 16-18 residents in each of the PGY II and III years. In addition to your fellow residents, you will be in contact daily with medical students from several medical schools, our own Fellows in medical subspecialty training, and a variety of teaching attending physicians. This results in an intellectually exciting and rewarding atmosphere, where ideas and knowledge are freely shared and where everyone benefits from others' contributions.

During the in-patient service, residents work in teams consisting of one senior resident, two interns and a variable number of students. A teaching attending physician is assigned to each in-patient service. The resident teams are involved in all aspects of patient management. Senior residents function as team leaders and conduct work rounds. Teaching attending physicians serve as mentors and conduct teaching rounds for one hour and fifteen minutes four days per week. Residents also work closely with each patient's physician of record, with subspecialty consultants, and with care coordinator nurses in order to provide efficient and appropriate care for all patients.

During elective rotations, residents learn by working directly with board-certified physicians and fellows in the subspecialty areas of medicine. In the ambulatory area, residents are mentored by nine board-certified attending physicians who share an internal medicine practice with them. To ensure that residents have a voice in the development and implementation of the educational curriculum, monthly meetings are held with the program director, chairman and other faculty. A combination of all these factors fosters congeniality and teamwork among the residents, students, attending physicians, nursing staff and personnel.

Seventy-nine of our 292 graduates are currently on staff and actively practicing in Internal Medicine at Lutheran General Hospital. Thirty-five percent of our residents have gone into subspecialty medical training. Many have chosen to train in one of our three fellowships. We currently offer three-year fellowships in Cardiology and Gastroenterology, as well as a one-year fellowship in Geriatrics. Nearly 50 percent of our fellowship slots have been filled by our own residents. Our residents also have entered many other outstanding fellowship programs in the country. Approximately five percent of all graduates who have gone into subspecialties have returned and are active members of our staff.

Lutheran General Hospital is a level-one trauma center. We have outstanding departments in obstetrics and gynecology, surgery, family practice, pediatrics, pathology, psychiatry, neonatology and emergency medicine. Lutheran General Hospital is the founding member of the Advocate Systems Research and Education Institute. This allows the hospital and the program to participate in the publication of a variety of clinical research trials. Because of the breadth of resources that Lutheran General Hospital possesses, we are able to be one of the nation's largest free-standing residency programs in internal medicine, one which allows its residents to gain all of their training experience at one campus.